Do We Really Need a Signature Scent?

In a recent moment of getting ready to go out to dinner with friends, I looked to my dresser for a fragrance to wear and immediately noticed a pattern – every fragrance within my vicinity contained jasmine whether it was Tom Ford’s Jasmin Rouge or Michael Kors’ Glam Jasmine, and even the Mandara Spa Tropical Blooms Body Oil. I’ve documented my devotion to jasmine and the gravitational pull it has on me many a time, and I’ve even tried to suggest a link between assuming personality traits and jasmine, however despite these fragrances sharing a common note, I appreciate that there are differences. There are down right carnal jasmine-oriented fragrances that just take over ever fibre of your being and command the attention of your nose, but I can’t forget the lighter and much more daytime appropriate fragrances. With that being said, I’m sure some of you might assume that jasmine would be my signature scent. While it is one of my favourites, that’s far from the truth.

There’s great rhetoric about the importance of finding your signature fragrance, but just as with fashion you’re encouraged to branch out into new trends and styles, why not assume the same approach with perfume? Why is there the need to search for ‘the one’ fragrance that’ll drive people to think of you the second they get a whiff of whatever it is you’ve decided to wear since you were 21.

I approach fragrance based on how I’m feeling, or sometimes how I’d like to feel, and so settling on one fragrance alone would be incredibly limiting. Just as Elizabeth Taylor married seven, what’s wrong with having seven perfumes? Below are some of the fragrances I’ve been rotating between lately:

Giorgio Armani Si“Opening with notes of Sicilian bergamot, mandarin oil and liquer de cassis, it has a heart which bursts with rose de mai absolute, neroli absolute and Egyptian jasmine absolute. The unique chypre base notes of patchouli oil intertwine with amber and musky undertones and a sweet animalic accord of vanille absolute.”

Dior Addict“Its top notes blend mandarin leaf with Tunisian orange blossom before revealing a powerful heart of jasmine sambac absolute that blossoms with soft femininity and sensuality. Its base unfurls in the deep, exquisite warmth of bourbon vanilla. A soft and seductive trail, tinged with light.”